good movrng. it is wednesday, july 20th. this is your a.m. wall. i'm ali velshi joining you this morning from new york. it's not a done deal. but a debt reduction plan put forward by a bipartisan group of senators, you see them there, known as the gang of six, shows some promise finally of breaking the stalemate in the debt ceiling negotiations. >> so i want to congratulate the gang of six for coming up with a plan that i think is balanced.

>> now, the plan does not address the debt ceiling. you see the debt clock there. it ticks down to august 2nd. that's when the u.s. could start defaulting on some of its bills. it could be a jumping-off point for a bigger deal. here are some of the highlights of the plan according to cnn senate forces, it shaves about $4 trillion off the debt load. rejiggers the tax load, cuts short-term spending by about $500 billion. it changes the entire budgeting process and it reforms social security. now, this plan is not to be confused with something you heard about yet, cut, cap and balance. that's a house plan that passed last night, imposing strict limits on future federal spending. that is likely doa, probably won't pass the senate. the president is promising to veto it if it did. in about 90 minutes, the spotlight in the news corp. phone hacking scandal turns to

british prime minister david cameron. he'll be front and center at the house of commons talking about his links to the murdoch media empire, this just a day after rupert murdoch insisted to lawmakers he didn't know much. >> i don't know. >> i don't know. >> i was not aware at the time. >> i don't have any memory. >> i don't know anything about that. >> i'm not sure what i said. >> i cannot spare to the accuracy of it. >> i just don't remember. >> check this out, a pie attack. you see it there, bottom left of your screen. the most memorable moments of the intense two-hour hearing. the pie man is a comedian who sent a tweet before the attack comparing murdoch to mr. burns, yes, that mr. burns on the left, the sinister but powerful simpsons character. the attacker is facing criminal charges this morning. will rupert murdoch face any? here is jeffrey toobin on "ac 360." >> a lot of people have talked about the possibility of criminal charges in the united

states, the foreign corrupt practices act or something connected with hacking of 9/11 victims. there is really no credible evidence at all of any sort of american criminal violations by anyone in connection with news corp. so i really think the question is really a business one over here as well as in england, can the murdochs stay in control? and i think probably yes is the answer. another hacking headline, 14 accused hackivists are wanted for a sish attack on paypal. the sweeps span the country tarthing people. this video is from a raid on long island. they're said to be from the hacking group an none mist which claims to have attacked visa and master card after the companies refused to process donations

being made to wikileaks. the crew of the shuttle "atlantis" waking up to the last full day in space and the last full day of a nasa space shuttle mission ever. ♪ >> waking up to the song "fanfare for the common man," a fittal title for the one final trip home. they're scheduled to land tomorrow at 5:56 eastern time. in about five minutes, i'll be talking to the crew of "atlantis" live in space about their historic flight and where space exploration goes from here. you'll want to stay tuned for that. an air traffic controller in colorado has been pull friday his post, in trouble for allegedly being drunk at the switch. the faa says the controller was about six hours into an eight-hour shift at the denver air route traffic control center when he failed a routine alcohol test earlier this month.

the faa says there was no indication of any problems during the shift. heads up for gay couples looking to tie the knot in new york city. they will have to hit the lotto. that's how mayor michael bloomberg is handling the high demand. >> the last thing we want to have happen is for couples to wait online for hours and hours only to walk away upset on what was supposed to be the biggest day of their life. we believe the fairest way to determine who gets the chance to wed on sunday is through a lottery system. >> city officials are capping the number of nuptials at 764. time for a quick check on the world's markets. a strong day on u.s. markets last night. let's go to nina dos santos live from london. nina, this is coming after a strong warning from the international monetary fund about the debt crisis in europe? >> the imf issuing some strong

words for eu leaders just ahead of tomorrow's summit, ali because they'll be trying to hammer out a second bailout for greece tomorrow when they meet. let's also take a look at why this should be concerning some of our viewers. a lot of economists have been saying that they're worried about this greece issue bays it undermines the stability of the euro which is a major trade in currency around the world. economists telling me it's not a good time to have worries about the euro because you've got worries about the u.s. dollar when it comes to the debacle when it comes to raising the debt ceiling ahead of august 2nd. >> a lot of things investors have to digest today, the strong markets yesterday largely had to do with earnings reports in the united states. one stock we've seen do nothing but lose value for the last couple weeks did quite well yesterday. that was the stock of rupert murdoch's company. >> that's right, ali. this stock is down by about 12% since july 5th. that's when the phone hacking scandal started gaining more

momentum here in britain. that means it's wiped off about $5 billion off his market capitalization. nevertheless, the stock did rally about 5.5% yesterday as rupert murdoch and his son james gave testimony to the parliamentary select committee here in the united kingdom, spiked significantly higher when james murdoch himself made a number of comments about transparency at the company. but this has affected the value of the shares that the murdoch family own. they've lost about $750 million on their own stake. wouldn't feel too sorry for them, ali. they still own shares that are worth more than $5 billion in total. >> nobody ever wants to lose money though, do they? good to see you this morning. i'm check in with you later. let's go to jacqui jeras live in atlanta in the weather center. activity in the tropics that might be of concern to us? >> good morning. we've been watching tropical storm bret, winds about 50 miles per hour. it will stay offshore.

the good news is we're not expecting this to bring showers and thunderstorms to the u.s., but we've got a lot of beach goers this time of year. this could bring in rough surf and also the threat of rip krentsz in georgia and florida. something to keep in mind over the next couple days. the heat continues to be a huge story across the nation. good news for folks across the nation's midsection. we're looking for some relief by tomorrow. however, that heat has got to go somewhere, right? watch out for folks along the eastern seaboard. we've got excessive heat warnings and watches already in place as that heat starts to make a little bit of a shift off towards the east. if you're traveling today, looking for problems in san francisco due to the wind. chicago we've got thunderstorms moving in as we speak. atlanta and miami will have problems later today because of thunderstorms. that will be the same case in the houston area as thunderstorms pop up there. ali, pay attention to this next story. i'm not normally a potty mouth. however, we have a story to tell you about today.

bill gates says it's time to reinvent, yes, the tail let. it's serious business, however. the foundation is offering up about $41 million for anybody who can reinvent this. basically it's been the same deal for about the last 200 years. they say it's important because people in other parts of the world can't really afford the porcelain -- >> it's actually done more for health and hygiene, the toilet than anything else. let's find a new one that even goes further and becomes more affordable. >> you're usually not a potty mouth. jacqui jeras, we'll check in with you later on. the astronauts on "atlantis" are orbiting hundreds of miles above earth. coming up in three minutes, we'll talk to them live on cnn. they they are standing by. the quote of the day is from one of our congressman. can you guess which said "you are the most vial, unprofessional and despicable member of the u.s. house of

representatives. if you have something to say to me, say it to my face. otherwise, shuck the heck up. we'll talk about it right after the break. it's nine minutes after the hour. oh hi! we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast... one more chariot please. ...we can bring the whole gang! i cannot tell a lie. he did it. right... it's hard to beat double miles! read my lips -- no new axes! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one, and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? so, you're a democrat right? what's in your wallet? ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors.

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so my family doesn't feel the pain too. ha! [ male announcer ] help protect your family at aflac.com. [ pigeons ] heyyy! hooo!!! shuttle launched into space. this week the shuttle era ends. the first reusable space program. the orbiter holds the crew and payload. the huge orange external tank holds fuel, and the two solid rocket boosters, those things on the side, provide most of the shuttle's lift during the first two minutes of flight. all the components are usable -- reusable except the big orange tank. it burns up in the atmosphere after each launch. fully loaded the shuttle system

weighs about 4.5 million pounds for those of you counting, that's about 300 el fantsz. columbia, challenger, discovery, "atlantis" and endeavor have taken 130 flights in total into the final pro tear, carrying more than 350 people in space. the shuttles have traveled more than half a billion miles, more than enough to get to the planet jupiter. >> two, one, zero and liftoff, the final liftoff of "atlantis" on the shoulders of the space shuttle america will continue the dream. >> that was the stirring moment on july 8th at the kennedy space center, the final shuttle mission that took off that day is wrapping up now. it began on july 8th with the incredible launch of the space shuttle "atlantis." there you see it heading towards the clouds. it was a cloudy day. there were questions as to whether it would take off, but it did. an historic takeoff watched by over a million people in person, never mind those watching it on tv.

chris ferguson, doug hurley, rex walheim and sandy magnus have been in space ever since that day. they're still there. there they are. right now the shuttle is flying above the atlantic ocean. those astronauts join us live from space prepping for tomorrow morning's landing, 24 hours from now. thanks to all of you so much for joining us. this is the last time the shuttle astronauts will ever be interviewed live on cnn. let's start with commander chris ferguson. chris, this is the last space shuttle mission. when you think of all that's been done in space and all that is being planned from here on, it almost feels like you are going to be a veteran of the golden age of space travel. >> first off, hello, ali. it's great to speak with you. welcome aboard the flight deck of the space shuttle "atlantis" on her final day in space. you know, i wouldn't say this is the end of the golden age.

it's certainly the end of, perhaps, a very specific age where just a select few can go into space. i think what we'll see in the next few years is a very broadening horizon, an opportunity for people who have never had an opportunity to go into space, to at least get to lower earth orbit. we'll turn over the reins of that business to our commercial partners and that will enable nasa to take the resources we put into the shuttle and hopefully go beyond lower earth orbit in the not-too-distant future. >> sandy magnus, mission specialist, you enjoy cooking, known to cook up special treats. i know you made christmas cookies once and made salsa for the super bowl. anything planned for the final meal up in space? >> i don't have anything planned. i may end up surprising the guys. the problems with the shuttle missions is they're so busy. this one has been incredibly busy. it haven't had time to do much

space cooking. i gave some tips so they can try a few of my recipes. >> chris ferguson, you'll be watching you closely. one of the cities i spend time in is philadelphia. you're a local to that area. what do you have to say to the folks on earth watching you bring that thing in beautifully tomorrow morning? >> well, i guess what i said to the folks when we left mission control, one of our orbit ships we spoke to them for the last time from orbit yesterday, i said as they walked out of the room to look up and make a memory. i'm say that to everybody who has an opportunity to perhaps see the landing realtime or see the shuttle on the runway, take a good look at it and make a memory because you'll never see anything like this again. it's been an incredible ride. >> rex, how are you kneeling about this? normally there's a comradery, a club of people who have flown on

the space shuttle. that club sort of closes tomorrow. what's your feeling about this final landing? >> i think it is historic in that nature, but i think it's going to open up a new era of space flight. right now there have been a tremendous amount of people who have flown, the vast majority that have ever flown in space. we want the next step, get access to lower earth orbit cheaper and more frequent. we can do that by partnering with our commercial partners. that can allow nasa to focus on the exploration, going beyond lower earth orbit, astroids, the moon or mars. i think it's going to be an extremely enjoyable and exciting time for nasa. we have to get through transition. transitions are always hard. we'll get through it. >> the whole world will be watching when you land tomorrow as you approach for the final time the landing of the space shuttle "atlantis." good luck to all of you. god speed and have a save next 24 hours. rex walheim, sandy magnus, chris

ferguson and doug hurley, thanks to all of you. we look forward to watching this. cnn will cover it live tomorrow morning. coming up on "american morning" at 8:10 eastern, the head of nasa, dr. charles boulden will be live to talk about the next big pron fear. as rex talked about, whether it's an astroid or mars and how commercial space travel plays into the equation. that's nasa's charles boulden, 8:10 a.m. eastern time. it's 19 minutes after the hour. back to the quote of the day from one of america's distinguished congressmen. he said you are the most viable, unprofessional and despicable member of the u.s. house of representatives. if you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face. otherwise, shut the heck up. that was freshman republican congressman alan west of florida ripping into fellow congresswoman debbie wasserman

schultz via e-mail, wasserman disparaged his bill which passed the house last night. here is watt wasserman said that provoked west's response. >> the gentleman from florida who represent thousands of medicare beneficiaries as do i is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for medicare beneficiaries, unbelievable from a member from south florida. it slashes medicaid -- >> we always have a national day for you. today is national day of the ugly truck contest. basically you need to be on the luckout for the ugliest truck on the road. tell me if you find one. 20 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta,

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the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve. time for your political ticker with tim farley from serious xm powe does live from washington. good morning, tim. the stalemate over the debt ceiling, it feels like there might be cracks in it, feels like this new deal -- i don't know what you want to call the gang of six, but looks like they might be making some progress. >> the gang of six was down to the five guys, then it was the four seasons and the three amigos, but now back to the gang of six. i think what we're looking at is there's going to have to be a shermt measure. even though the president gave it a little bear hug yesterday

during his appearance in the briefing room, we'll have to see how it turns out. polls are showing people want it desperately. >> let me bring up this brand new abc news "washington post" poll which reflects stuff you and i have been talking about in the last week or so with other polls. it shows more than six in ten americans say in agreement on the deficit needs to include a combination of spending cuts and some tax increases. >> and both polls seem to indicate that the president and republicans are not doing enough, more so republicans, and even independent voters feel that way. i was thinking about this as you were talking to the shuttle astronauts, ali, tomorrow is the anniversary of man walking on the moon 689 i remember that feeling in 1969 of can-do spirit. that's what people are looking for in the debt ceiling talks. we'll see if they get it at least by friday of this week which is the deadline for some general agreement. >> you're absolutely right about

that. it's hard to garner that feeling around budgets and deficits. tim farley the host of morning briefing on serious xm powe tus. zain verjee in london, good morning. david cameron, british prime minister himself going to speak to parliament about his role in the phone hacking scandal. this thing has been more and more information every day. what are we expecting from him? >> we are expecting that he's going to get a real grilling by people in parliament today. he cut short his trip to africa to deal with this crisis. there are new and damaging revelations, ali, that shows more links to an editor of "news of the world," neil wallis, who is now out on bail. what's being reported, there are senior members within his own party that are refusing to come out and openly back him. the question is how isolated is he becoming? he's got to do a good job defending himself and the whole

situation in parliament. what they're going to want is information and answers from him about a guy called andy coulson, the former editor of "news of the world" who david cameron hired as his chief communications guy, his main spin doctor. he's going to answer tough questions. a quick look at the papers here. you can see "the independent" says hacking crisis edges closer to cameron. that's where the story is focused today. check out "the telegraph" murdoch eats humble pie. finally, one of murdoch's own papers, the most humble day of my life. >> the humble pie was the reference to the guy who walked in and pied him right before murdoch's wife cut him off. some say she gave a pretty big shot to him. he's facing charges this morning. good to see you, zain verjee. you can see wendy deng in the bottom left corner, moves in and smacks the guy. today's businessman's

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good morning. it is wednesday, july 20th. this is your a.m. wall. i'm ali velshi. joining you live from new york, 30 minutes after the hour. it's not a done deal, but a debt reduction plan put forward by the bipartisan group of senators known as the gang of six shows promise finally of breaking the stalemate in the debt ceiling negotiations. >> there's an awful lot of support for this void that's out there from the standpoint of a bipartisan agreement on something.

>> today consensus seemed to be that this was a balanced, comprehensive and bipartisan. those are three words you haven't heard a lot of in this town recently. >> president obama congratulated the group on the plan which does not specifically address the debt ceiling, but it could be a jumping-off point as the debt clock in new york ticks down to the august 2nd deadline. here are the highlights of the plan. it shaves about $4 trillion off the debt load, rejiggers the tax code, cuts short-term spending by about $500 billion, changes the budget process and reforms social security. the plan overshadowed a house vote, by the way, on the cut, cap and balance plan that would impose strict limits on future federal spending. it passed the house last night. it's not going to make it through the senate and likely to be doa because president obama promised to veto it if it got through the senate. if there's no deal to raise the debt ceiling, states could suffer collateral damage.

moody's has put five states on notice their credit ratings could be downgraded, maryland, virginia, south carolina, tennessee and new mexico. mod difficult's points to things like the number of federal workers and federal contracts in those states. memphis is delaying the start of the school year indefinitely unless the city pays them $55 million. the school board says the city is dragging its feet in paying the debt it owes. it has been for years. the bottom line, board members say the school district needs the money to pay its bills. caught in the middle, of course, the kids. >> someone has to assume responsibility for the collective education of the children in the city of memphis, and i don't think the city council can be exempt from that responsibility. >> i'm all in support of us having assurances and money in the bank, but i think that 55 was just an unreasonable amount to expect at this particular time. >> the school board says it's already cut 1500 jobs.

in about an hour, the spotlight in the news corp. phone hacking scandal turns to british prime minsters david cameron, this just a day after rupert murdoch insisted to lawmakers he didn't know much. he said it was the most humble day of his life. he said he was ashamed of what happened at "news of the world." >> did you close the paper down because of the criminality? >> yes, we felt ashamed of what had happened and felt to bring it to a close. >> people lied to you and lied to their readers. >> we had broken our trust with our readers. >> but it was a man with a pie. look at the bottom left of your screen shouting "you greedy billionaire" as he hurled it at rupert murdoch. you see the guy lifting the pie and you see in the pink, you'll see in a second, wendy deng,

rupert murdoch's wife, she comes in and watch what she does with her hand. she takes a swing at the guy. no harm done. he got foam on his face. police arrested the fellow and charged him criminally. in montgomery, alabama, all the talk about about daisy the wonder dog, the police drug doll. earlier this week she was sniffing a tractor-trailer during a traffic stop and discovered more than a million in cold hard cash, the biggest cash seizure ever in montgomery. we'll see what we saw yesterday -- will we see what we saw yesterday? the market posted its strongest day of the year. let's go to carter evans live in new york from the nasdaq market site. what a day it was yesterday, carter. >> yes, investors, ali, yesterday were focusing primarily on earnings. more on that in a second. but we also had president obama basically saying that it looks like they're getting closer to a deal. that really encouraged the market. that's when things turned around. the dow closed up almost 200

points yesterday. futures looking good as well. dow up 104 points. we had great news after the closing bell yesterday. lots of companies just blew doors with their quarterly earnings. apple up almost 4% in the pre market revenue for the quarter, came in at 28.6 billion, profit doubled. harley-davidson was roaring yesterday, up 9% at the close, increasing bike sales. good news for harley. ibm beat expectations, as yushlt, closed almost 7% higher. coca-cola, up about 3.25%. it met, but they did have concerns there. nevertheless, it was looking pretty good. yahoo! yesterday, net income rose, but still disappointed investors down 2% in the pre market. bank of america lost $8.8 billion in the quarter. that was in line with expectations. analysts were expecting that basically bank of america paid

that to clear up all the problem mortgages related with the countrywide scandal. a couple more, goldman sachs, a big investment bank, missed expectations down slightly. johnson & johnson yesterday also disappointed. >> all right. you got apple, you got a coke and a halfly. what more do you need, carter? >> exactly. life is good. >> carter evidence vachbs at the nasdaq market site. i told you about this. you travelers out there, $37 billion worth of commercial airplanes are up for grabs this morning. according to bloomberg news, american air lirns will make a big announcement today about a record breaking order of 400 narrow body passenger jets. according to sources the order will be split between boeing and airbus. that order of 400 planes, by the way, may come with an option to buy another 500 planes. american, boeing and airbus, all declining to comment this morning. american airlines, as i said, does have a news conference planned for today. we will let you know what news comes out of that.

before we go, earlier in the show we spoke to the last space shuttle astronauts live from space. right now we want to talk about the future. today's get smart question, what is the name of the first commercial spaceship operator, a, virgin soup sonic, bvirgin galactic or c, virgin enterprise, all with a virgin in it. 37 minutes after the hour. woman: saving for our child's college fund was getting expensive. man: yes it was. so to save some money, we taught our 5 year old how to dunk. woman: scholarship! woman: honey go get him. anncr: there's an easier way to save. get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. aren't getting enough whole grain. but actually, it's never been easier to get the whole grain you want from your favorite big g cereals. from cheerios to lucky charms,

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♪ [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercedes and lexus for audi than ever before. experience the summer of audi event and get over 130 channels of siriusxm satellite radio for 3 months at no charge. 40 minutes after the hour. let's get back to our "get smart" question. what is the name of the first commercial spaceship operator, virgin super sonic, virgin galactic or vir sdwrin enterprise. the answer is virgin galactic. they've even built a space port which is an airport for spacecraft in new mexico. let's bring in paul

steinhauser on the phone in washington. tell us about your polling about the debt ceiling increase. >> ali, we heard the president yesterday talk about that combined approach to -- on an agreement that would include tax increases plus spending cuts. he said most americans can't afford that. five polls out over the next week say, yeah, americans do support it including two that came out last night. an abc-"washington post" poll released last night indicates more than six in ten americans say any agreement on the debt ceiling needs to include a combination of spending cuss and new taxes. when you break that down, large majority of democrats, independent voters and nearly half of republicans say so. nbc-"wall street journal" came out with a new poll, the same story, 57% of the people in their survey support that approach. only 37 support the house republican approach which would only have spending cuts and no new taxes for the wealthy and

corporations. one other thing on that. the top two democrats in the house that say they have a problem in that approach coming from the gang of six senators. they say it may not be enough time to get it done between august 2nd. paul, i know you and your team will be on it. paul steinhauser, thanks. three things to have on your radar today. boeing has made a decision on the future of its famous 737s, the news is expected to coincide with another announcement by american airlines that it's ordering a record-number of jets from boeing and airbus. at 2:15 the first lady expected to make a major announcement regarding access to healthy and affordable food. the teaparty.net will host a debate. yao ming is calling it quits. the nba star announced his retirement overnight during a news conference in shanghai. >> i want to make the

announcement that as a basketball player, my basketball playing career has come to an end. >> the 7'6" pro baller was the tallest nba player when he left, voted an all-star player eight times while playing for the houston rockets. texas rangers are making railing at the ball park higher after a 39-year-old man fell over the railing and died while trying to catching a foul ball. a man is found debt with a bullet in his head. david salinas may have been covering up a massive ponzi scheme. big name coaches reportedly invested million. possible lay torrey is on his way to houston to cover the story. pap low, which coaches are we talking about? >> these are prominent basketball names. we've learned the billy gilespy

with investment tech had an investment valued at $2.3 million with david salinas, that arizona's olson had $1.7 million, scott drew had over $600,000 and on and on down the list of more than a dozen names. we're not talking just basketball coaches either. we're talking football coaches and at least one former college athletic director as well. the coaches i spoke to told me they're shocked and disturbed at the fact that all this money may now be gone and that this man, david salinas killed himself seemingly out of shear guilt in the middle of an s.e.c. investigation. >> you're heading to houston to figure this out, pablo, thanks for joining us. before we take a break, we have a space theme going on in the show today. this day in history, as tim farley mentioned earlier, july 20th, 1969, man took his first

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47 minutes after the hour. good morning, it's wednesday, july 20th. this is your a.m. wake-up call. i'm ali velshi joining you live. let's go to zain verjee in london. david cameron, the prime minister is about to speak to parliament about the phone

hacking scandal expected in about 45 minutes. what are we likely to get out of him? >> he is likely to get a really tough time by lawmakers. they want to continue to question him about this guy called andy coulson, the former editor of "news of the world." he hired him as his chief spin doctor at ten downing street. coulson has resigned, been arrested and is out of bail. there have been new revelations about the conservative party's links, allegedly, to another former "news of the world" editor. the newspapers here, that's their lead story, "hacking crisis edges closer to cameron." this is the "daily telegraph," "murdoch eats humble pie," a reference to the shaving comb that a comedian walked in and tried to whack on rupert murdoch. they're talking about his wife wendy here a lot, calling her in another paper "crouching wendy, hidden dragon." finally, take a look at "the

sun" here, murdoch paper "the most humble day of my life." that's the headline. today really is going to be a focus on david cameron. a lot of people are asking can he weather the storm and survive? he's saying he's handling it, calling for a public inquiry led by a judge and insists he'll get to the bottom of this, but also reminding people, hey, we've got to talk about the economy, fix the immigration system. he's trying to change the subject. i don't think they'll let him. >> a very popular move, talking about the economy, everybody knows that's a big concern. lit be a tough choice as a viewer watching that or watching what's going on here with the debt ceiling. zain verjee in london. speaking about the economy, it's not a done deal, but a debt reduction plan put forward by a bipartisan group of senators known as the gang of six. you see them there, shows some promise, finally of breaking the stalemate in the debt ceiling negotiations. >> and so i want to congratulate the gang of six for coming up with a plan that i think is

balanced. >> the plan shaves off about $4 trillion, rejiggers the -- it doesn't specifically talk about the debt ceiling, that could be the jumping-off point for a bigger budget deal. the president wants a deal done by the end of the week. meanwhile the house passed the cut, cap and balance plan which would impose strict limits on future spending. the measure is likely to be doa. it's not going to get through the senate. even if it did, the president said he would veto it. we're learning about a hacking incidents involving the taliban. a message was sent saying mull ladd mow ham mode omar is dead. the taliban denies it's true. nato says it has no information on his position or whereabouts. the crew of the shuttle "atlantis" waking up to the last

full day in space and the last full day of a nasa space shuttle mission ever. ♪ >> the song "fanfare for the common man" is a fitting title for the last trip home. i spoke to the crew a few minutes ago about the future of the space program. >> i wouldn't say it's the end of the golden age, the end of when a select few can go into space. i think what we'll see in the next few years is add a broadening horizon, for people to at least get to lower earth orbit. we'll turn over the reins of that business to our commercial partners and that will enable nasa to take the resources we put into the shuttle and go beyond lower earth orbit in the

not-too-distant future. the shuttle is scheduled to last tomorrow at 5:56 eastern time. jacqui jeras is live in atlanta watching some things in the tropics. there's a tropical storm off the coast of the carolinas packing winds around 50 miles per hour. the biggest impact this thing will have on the u.s., it will bring up rough surf and rip currents, so something to keep in mind for you beach goers out there. travelers today have a couple of areas to watch out for, windy conditions out west. delays possible for san francisco. chicago, we had a line of thunderstorms that moved through already this morning. that could be enough to keep things a little slow out of the gate, especially for the first half of your day. atlanta, miami, looking for delays under an hour with afternoon thunderstorms. we'll also see a lot of thunderstorms all along the gulf coast. houston, maybe even into new orleans you could have some minor delays for today. that's about it across the country. other than that heat, ali.

we'll talk more about that coming up in "american morning." >> i felt it as i walked out this this morning. jacqui jeras in the weather center. let's take a look at the word of the day, tall poppy syndrome. find out what it means and why an australian op ed columness said it belongs to rupert murdoch. 53 minutes after the hour. [ man ] they said i couldn't win a fight. but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. ♪ sometimes when we touch ha ha! millions of hits! [ male announcer ] flick, stack, and move between active apps seamlessly. only on the new hp touchpad with webos.

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56 minutes after the hour. the word of the day or the words of the day, tall poppy syndrome. it's a phrase meaning a tendency to disparage any person who has achieved great prominence or wealth. it's the reason australia wants to have rupert murdoch, a native australian answer questions at

home. the term is common throughout the former british colonies, cutting down people of merit because their talents elevate them above their peers. tall poppy syndrome. here will three things to put on your radar, 2:15 the first lady expected to make a major announcement regarding access to healthy and affordable food. today we're watching for new developments on the nfl lochout. the players could vote as early as today. at 3:00 p.m., teaparty.net hosting a twitter debate. the markets are set to open in a few hours. will we see what we saw yesterday with the day posting its strongest gains of the year? let's go to carter evans live in new york from the nasdaq market site. carter, how are markets shaping up today? >> the futures are looking good, big gains yesterday, the dow up 200 points. today our futures are up another 100 points. we've got no big economic reports today. the focus is on earnings and the

debt crisis. as for earnings, coming out this morning before the opening bell, we'll hear from tobacco company altria, the owner of philip morris, expected to show rising profit even though americans are still buying fewer cigarettes in the face of tax increases and health concerns. intel is reporting before the bell, investors are looking for positives and negatives to balance the company out. those would be continued strength in desk tops and servers for businesses. that could likely offset the weak computer sales numbers. we'll also be looking the the smaller chip segment for mobile devices which intel is finally diving into. blackrock is also reporting before the opening bell today, expecting to see solid results from blackrock, attracting lots of new assets from investors and has strong returns in many of its funds. after the closing bell today, am ex-is poised to report very strong second quarter earnings. we're also going to hear from

qualcomm today, expected to be strong as well, ebay is expected to report growth compared with this time last year. ali? >> carter evans at the nasdaq market site, thank you very much. amid the uk phone hacking scandal a member of british parliament accuses piers morgan of hacking, too. >> piers morgan now a celebrity anchor said openly in his book clearly published before this whole controversy broke that he had hacked phones -- >> on cnn's "situation room" yesterday our own wolf blitzer brought on the two. piers disputed the accusations saying they weren't true. the problem is mensch wouldn't discuss it with piers because of parliamentary privilege. that's when things got heated. >> show some balls, repeat what you said about me. >> as i've just said, i made the claims in the select committee and people will look at them. >> are you going to publicly apologize to me and to